Two people decide to open their own separate restaurants on the same street. Both restaurants serve the same type of food and drinks and they both are able to satisfy their customers. If you’re hungry, going to either restaurant would satisfy your appetite. One of the biggest differences is that one restaurant charges more for their food than the other restaurant, even though it is the same type of food being served in both places. Even though people looking to save money would more than likely go to the cheaper restaurant, the higher-priced restaurant is not budging on their prices whatsoever and are still able to bring in a lot of business themselves. Why is this? Why don’t they feel the need to lower their prices to meet or beat their competition?

The primary reason for this is because they focus more on their quality of service than their quantity of prices. Sure, you may be able to get food from the other place for lower prices. However, the quality of the food that you get there would not be able to compare to the quality that they are able to guarantee their customers will experience each and every time they walk through their restaurant doors. Their chefs are educated experts in their culinary crafts, their wait staff has been thoroughly trained to provide the best service and the overall experience that their customers have when they eat there far outranks anything that the competing store could provide for their customers. Another reason why their prices are not affected by their competitors is because of the confidence that they have in their quality. They know that their competitors cannot come close to providing the quality of service to their customers that they have become known for. Therefore, they are confident that their customers will be able to see the difference and value it more to the point of paying more money just to experience it.

This scenario applies to almost every single scenario in the business world. Think about it for a moment! Why does Verizon Wireless charge so much for their service when there are so many other companies providing the same type of services for over half of their prices? Why does Disney World charge so much for admission when there are hundreds of other theme parks that don’t charge their visitors anywhere close to what they do?

No matter what situation you think of, it is all for the same reason. Experience, education, expertise, longer track records of successful service and an overwhelming number of satisfied customers all contribute to the overall quality that sets these higher-priced businesses apart from all other businesses.

Quality service should not be sacrificed just to be able to make a quick buck. This principle also applies to our industry as voice actors. We should not feel the need to change anything that we are doing or the rates that we are currently charging for our services just because of our undercutting competitors. Companies such as Voice Jockeys, Internet Jock and Voice Bunny have become popular in the industry because they are able to offer the same type of service that we are for much lower prices. Does this make them better than us? Of course not! Why? Because what we are able to offer, they can not.

We did not take the cheap route in being able to make it to this point in our careers and to become the skilled experts that we are at what we do for our clients. Therefore, why would we take the cheap route in getting customers to use our services over anyone else’s? Verizon is able to draw more wireless customers by refusing to lower their prices, because they are subliminally sending the message to people that there must be something that they have that no one else does. When playing Poker, if someone at the table continuously raises their bet without hesitation, you start to wonder to yourself, “What is in their hand? What kind of cards are they playing with?” The same sense of curiosity applies in the business world and is a great tactic in attracting new customers that want to experience whatever secret they have that no one else does.

We are not going to win over every single customer. That is just not realistic. No matter how good you are at what you do, there will always be someone that will want to follow the cheapest route possible. Some people will continue to choose companies like Voice Bunny over us the same way that they choose other theme parks over Disney World and other cell phone providers over Verizon Wireless. However, like these elite companies that do not budge, we have to continuously have confidence in the quality of our service that only we can provide. Fighting hard to compete with the prices of companies that do not measure up to our level of expertise, skillset and knowledge doesn’t make us better than them; it actually only makes us worse.

Would you really want to sacrifice all of the money that you should be getting by taking a firm, confident stand for the few extra bucks that you would literally be slaving over by lowering your standards and expectations to meet theirs?

Comments

February 22

Frank Eriksen @ 8:19 pm

Not sure if this really applies to VO, but nice job on the post. I think we’re in a time when we need to know if it’s a sellers or buyers market. I’m all for keeping fees high, but sometimes some work is better than no work at all.

Your old tutorial, which I based my preset (entitled Terry Daniel in homage), used to include a light hard limiter. Why no longer? Also, I noticed you didn’t go crazy with sound foam around your studio, yet it didn’t seem too live in there. I’m also wondering where you have your computer. Is it out of the studio, or do you run a gate? If you run that gate in Audition, I’m curious how you did it.

Thank you for small segments of informational training that you have provided. My interest have gone through the roof, pertaining to voice overs. I’m currently in school and have been interested in forms of broadcasting since was 13 yeas old. And I’m totally hooked on voceover work or the art.
Thanks for all you information
Darryl R. Queen

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